By Heather Michon
Correspondent
At its final meeting of 2024, the Planning Commission recommended amending county zoning to limit multiple land divisions for housing development.
In November, the Board of Supervisors approved a zoning change that eliminated rural cluster subdivisions as a by-right use in A-1 zoning districts. The only by-right uses on A-1 land are family subdivisions, where a landowner can divide their land as individual parcels for extended family members, or minor subdivisions of five homes or fewer.
The text amendment under consideration on Tuesday night (Dec. 10) would limit how many times a parcel can be divided. Under the current county code, parcels can be divided every five years, “which, in effect, creates major subdivisions over time,” said Director of Planning Todd Fortune.
Under the proposed amendment, a “parent tract” could only be divided into five parcels. Divisions of six or more parcels from a parent tract would be considered a major subdivision and be required to go through that regulatory process.
County Attorney Dan Whitten said the parent tract definition is used in many Virginia counties, including Goochland, Greene, and Louisa. If approved by the Board of Supervisors, it would likely go into effect on Jan. 22.
The change would not impact family subdivisions. “There’s no limit on that,” said Fortune.
Some property owners raised concerns during the public hearing.
Cabell Hatchett owns two properties in Fluvanna and said it seemed “very restrictive.”
“I don’t really get how that’s going to help me with economic development on my 20-acre tract or my 100-acre tract, depending on what I want to do,” he said.
John Alexander said he had spoken to a land appraiser, and the change had the potential to “be a huge rip in the value of landowner on every level,” he said.
For example, “if somebody wanted to take a piece of land and put it in a conservation easement and you change it this way and you give somebody five division rights on 400 or 500 or 300 acres, that land does not have the same conservation value,” he argued. “So that going to be less incentive for a large landowner into a conservation easement.”
“It seems there are more and more restrictions on by-right development,” said local property attorney Nicole Scro.
She wondered if the commissioners would consider raising the number of houses allowed in a minor subdivision to something greater than five homes or lowering the acreage for large subdivisions from 60 acres down to 10 acres.
After some discussion, the commissioners voted to approve the recommendation for the text amendment without adding any changes. It will go on to the Board of Supervisors for a final vote.
Commissioners also approved a minor amendment to the county code that lowered the threshold for the number of children in a licensed family daycare facility from six down to five to align with state law and corrected an error in the definition of a “front yard.”
